Recently in Politics Category

Ugh. Well, at least he took Boston:

Hillary Clinton withstood a string of high-profile endorsements for Barack Obama to glide to a surprisingly decisive victory, while Mitt Romney held onto his Republican base to handily beat John McCain yesterday, in the most competitive and meaningful Massachusetts presidential primary in memory.

In one of the largest of voter turnouts in state presidential primaries, Clinton surged to a lead with the earliest returns last night, then never gave it up - in sharp contrast to the public surveys that had shown Obama closing in over the final week. With about 92 percent of the state's precincts reporting, she held a 56 percent to 41 percent lead. Clinton had 47 Massachusetts delegates to Obama's 29, according to preliminary counts.

Obama, who had the support of Governor Deval Patrick and Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, carried Boston by a small margin of under 10,000 votes, as Mayor Thomas M. Menino's political machine kept her close. Obama also did well in liberal, affluent suburbs.

But Clinton ran up comfortable margins in urban areas such as Quincy, Worcester, Fall River, Springfield, New Bedford, and other more conservative towns in the Merrimack Valley and South Shore.

"This is still Clinton country," Menino said in an interview last night. "Our campaign wasn't about speeches; it was about work. All we had was people making the phone calls, knocking on doors. We weren't involved in superstar campaigns; we were involved in workers campaigns."

Asshats.

So, in a turn of events that probably has all the politicos scratching their heads, McCain defeated Romney and Clinton is currently besting Obama in the New Hampshire primary. Adding further complexity to the matter, Huckabee, who took first in the Republican race in Iowa, came in a somewhat distant third – McCain took 37% of the vote, Romney took 31% and Huckabee snared a lowly 12%, only three percentage points better than Giuliani and four better than Ron Paul. Fred Thompson? 1%. Ouch.

Things weren't much clearer on the Democratic side of the ticket – as of this writing, Clinton has 39%, Obama has 36%, but Edwards, who dang near tied these two in Iowa, is trailing with a weak 17%.

But you know what's really awesome? What's genuinely, truly heartening to young people, intelligent people and people fed up with the crap we've been getting from Washington for the past God-knows-how-many years? From the same New York Times article:

Reflecting the intense statewide interest in the contest in both parties, turnout approached record levels and New Hampshire’s independent voters most likely were the ones who decided both parties’ races. Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain won the votes of independents by large margins over their closest competitors, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Romney, according to exit polls.

Roughly four in 10 voters who participated in each primary identified themselves as independents.

Rock the vote indeed! I tell you what, this is going to be a primary to watch.

I'm trying not to get all worked up about next year's election, since the last time I was thoroughly excited about an election – ahem – things didn't go as I'd hoped. However, I've still got enough political interest left to have me keeping an eye on the Iowa caucuses tonight, which, for those of you who don't follow politics that much, often serve as a sort of canary in the coal mine for who's going to land the nomination for each party. Consider the previous winners of this particular contest:

At this moment, ~9:20 PM EST, the Dems are reporting an Obama-Edwards-Clinton neck-and-neck-and-neck race, with results at 33.7%, 31.9% and 31.6% respectively. Total, that's 97.4%; Bill Richardson's weighing in with 1.7% and Biden's at 0.9%, leaving Dodd, Gravel, Ohio's local loon Kucinich and all others at 0.0%. I hadn't honestly expected Edwards to be making such a strong showing, but good for him!

What interests me even more than the Dems at the moment is the Republican race. Mike Huckabee's been declared the winner already with 35% of the votes, followed by Romney with 24, Thompson with 14.2, McCain with 11.8, Ron Paul with 10.9 and – this is where I cackle with glee – Giuliani with a paltry 3.7%. Why does this warm my heart? Because I've found Giuliani's campaign technique so far to be utterly deplorable, a despicable attempt to capitalize on the loss of American lives during 9/11. Up until I stopped keeping track, for the majority of his campaign every single one of his speeches included some sort of reference to 9/11. And, by God, I sure hope to high heaven that the next 4-8 years aren't going to be dictated by the events of 9/11 as the last 4-8 years.

God, I miss The West Wing. I loved Charlie Wilson's War – Aaron, buddy, where are you now that we need you? We're sorry we turned up our noses at Studio 60! Please tell us you got your snarking at the TV industry out of your system and are working on a new political series! We're dying out here in an arid wasteland of I Love New York and other reality dreck! Save us! Please!

Man, it's like Christmas came early: Rumsfeld is stepping down. I'm not entirely surprised – after the Dems thrashed the Republicans largely thanks to voters tired of the war in Iraq, Rummy is an obvious target.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out, you warmongering bastard.

Interesting piece in The Washington Post on what the Dems are planning:

Early Democratic priorities will include raising the minimum wage, boosting homeland security spending, shifting the nation's energy policy away from oil and gas exploration toward alternative fuel sources, and reversing cuts to education spending.

Meanwhile in the committee chambers, aggressive new chairmen, such as Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), promise a series of investigations and hearings into matters that have largely gone unexplored under GOP control, such as allegations of waste in Iraq and mismanagement of the war.

That alone could dramatically change the political atmosphere during Bush's final two years in office.

While "increasing homeland security spending" doesn't sound very Democratic, the rest of the list had me grinning from ear to ear, especially the bits about alternative energy sources and increased education spending – and the thought of finally hoisting Halliburton on its own petard. C'mon, Pelosi – light the way!

After last night's nail-biting results, even if the Dems don't take the Senate (which they might not; Montana is still 49%-49% with 100% of the precincts reporting, with the Dems only up by 1,735 votes and Virginia is Dems up 50%-49% with 100% precincts reporting – both of which sound fantastic but are definite recount material), there's only one way to express my emotions.

Oogachaka, baby!

While on my morning "jog" around the news sites, I read the The New York Times piece on Barack Obama's hinting at a 2008 presidential candidacy. I am neither racist nor sexist, but I find myself wondering at the wisdom of a Democratic party simultaneously attempting to retake the White House and elect either the first African-American president or woman president in history.

Anyway, those were the thoughts bouncing around my mind when they were completely blown out of the water by this little nugget:

Mr. Obama’s television appearance came as he embarked on a publicity campaign for his second book, “The Audacity of Hope.” Although politicians have been known to suggest they might run for president as a way of spiking book sales, Mr. Obama’s political adviser, David Axelrod, said that was not the case here.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “The book is doing fine. We don’t need to add any mustard to the hot dog.”

Apparently "gilding the lily" is too highfalutin' a phrase these days, and has been replaced by the much more blue-collar We don't need to add any mustard to the hot dog. I'd be offended if I didn't find the phrase so bizarrely funny. (Plus, I always take mustard on my hot dogs.)

We don't need to add any mustard to the hot dog. Good Lord.

I did it, I'm glad I did it, and I'd do it again! Well, next time, anyway. I popped down to the local polling booth, did my duty as an American citizen, and I'm proud to have done so.